By ART THIEL, P-I COLUMNIST

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, March 27, 2008

LOST IN THE parsing of each David Stern utterance, and obscured by the tremblings of politicos facing twin terrors of re-election and recession, is a simple fact of Seattle Center life.

Since KeyArena is a civic landmark unlikely to be torn down in the lifetime of any current elected official, it's going to have to be upgraded sooner or later for whatever purposes the public and the market deem worthy.

With or without the NBA, the building will continue as it has for 46 years to house sports, concerts, meetings, graduations and the events that filled far more dates than the Sonics, although it will do so less competitively each passing year.

An anchor tenant such as a big-revenue pro sports team enhances the building's economics, but the absence of one doesn't necessarily kill it. So publicly subsidizing its upgrade is not, as some taxpayers and some politicians claim, merely a subsidy for pro sports.

And when private capital is found to pay half the cost of a public building's improvements, the opportunity is so obviously compelling that to fail to exploit the moment out of ignorance or political fear is inexcusable.

Whether one considers such an offer a foolish misjudgment of civic priorities, that is the deal -- upgrade this building, now, or forget $150 million. And by the way, the investment provides the only way for the city to keep the NBA in town.

The point is worth making today because, based on a conversation Thursday with Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, the city has not yet found the $75 million to close the KeyArena upgrade deal, and is down to back-channel conversations with state legislative leaders. Again.

"The city can't do this on its own," Ceis said. "We need a partnership with the state if we're going to pull this off. If we go beyond our $75 million (already dedicated by the city to the project), we're into the general fund. That's why we're still talking to the state. We'll see what comes of it.

"The city shouldn't do it on its own. The Key draws people from all over the region and state. It's an asset for all."

Asked whether the city was seeking another route to create funding other than a one-day special session, Ceis said, "That's what we're talking about. I can't say more. We know it's a tough thing to call a special session. We understand it cannot be done on a whim."

Whether this city-state volley is yet another episode of buck-passing is unclear. None among Mayor Greg Nickels, Gov. Chris Gregoire and the legislative leadership wants to be targeted for blame if the Sonics leave. But the greater fear in a largely liberal, Democratic state is that a greater number of taxpayers will be offended if the Sonics are helped, even if the anti-pro-sports crowd's dismay over this particular offer is misinformed and misdirected.

That brings up yet another point that has been lost in the rhetoric and political butt-covering: Regardless of which coffer is tapped by whom, politicians and taxpayers apparently need reminding that no public money will be used unless and until a franchise is secured. The tax stream sought, the one retiring Safeco Field debt, isn't even available until 2011 at the earliest.

The point of the current exercise is to get Seattle into the NBA fight. At the moment, there is no counterpunch to Sonics owner Clay Bennett's uppercuts, Stern's overhand rights and the heckling of Oklahoma City ringsiders. The only offense has been defense, a lawsuit over the lease, wherein a win will force the Sonics to play two final years in KeyArena.

Even with an upgraded KeyArena plan complete with funding, as well as a potential ownership group that includes Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, who would become the NBA's wealthiest owner next to fellow Seattle resident Paul Allen, the NBA probably will grant Bennett's request. But a plan with big money behind it, and a win in the court case, delays the relocation two years and creates sufficient unpleasantness to provoke a serious negotiation, be it for a Sonics sale or a relocated team.

Despite the odds, the fight should be to keep the Sonics, because poaching another city's team is going to generate the same bad feelings in another town that Sonics fans feel here now. Some will argue that it's just business; others will says it's passing civic cruelty like an infectious disease.

Though there has been much talk here of a "Cleveland Browns solution," it overlooks a key difference.

When the Browns abandoned Cleveland for Baltimore in 1995, the NFL made relative peace with ripped-off fans by the promise of a replacement. That team happened in 1999, but it was an expansion team, not a stolen team.

The NBA is not expanding domestically in the foreseeable future. There's no point, as long as it has a half-dozen franchises sagging financially. The only planned "expansion" is a junior version years down the road, NBA China, a separate subsidiary with no crossover games except for exhibitions.

Poaching a team has a long history in pro sports, but unless the NBA makes an unprecedented agreement in writing that the next relocated team goes to Seattle, the notion is only a theory.

The only way to make it a promise, albeit it for years down the road, is to create pressure now.

The only way to create pressure now is to have the civic leadership and guts to take the small risk of punching back.